


What years can do

by littletechiebird



Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-30
Updated: 2012-03-30
Packaged: 2017-11-02 18:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littletechiebird/pseuds/littletechiebird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reqest: Dick/Older!Damian meeting up after a long time of not seeing each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What years can do

Quite a bit of time had passed, the seasons cycling to bring change after change. It was to the point where he felt that his title was being out grown. He had gained the full respect as a man, and over the years he had only gotten stronger. But no one else would be acceptable to stand beside his father to work with him. Not only that, but a Batman without a Robin had already been proven to be unacceptable as well (so that was one thing that Drake had done to a vague bit of success.) So he would wait. He had been waiting. It was a patient bide of his time just like he had for—

“Nightwing.”

The man who stood before him then on the rooftop earned no change in expression from the grown boy that had quickly become a man. How long had it been? Oh, he knew. He knew down to the very hour and minute how long Dick Grayson had been gone, but it was purely for a kind of security and surveillance purpose. He kept tabs on many people…

“Aw Robin, don’t be like that! Didn’t you miss me at all?”

Despite the long duration which he had been gone, Dick had not changed. He seemed just the same as the day he had left. Damian had hoped for— no, he had expected nothing less.

“No.”

Came the flat response. It just brought a chuckle from the older man while the younger huffed.

“Tt.”

He seemed so pleased, even under Damian’s glare. Then again, he always was and had been. He was seemingly immune to any aspect of Damian’s so-called “foul personality”. In fact, it was something he seemed to seek out.

“Come on, let’s head back.”

As Dick turned away, looking over his shoulder at Damian to watch for any movement to show that he was following, all he got was a raised eyebrow that twitched with irritation. It was a detail that Dick didn’t miss.

“I am on patrol with—”

“He gave me the go ahead to take you back ten minutes ago.”

The glint of the smug smirk that came coupled with his statement made him bristle with irritation. Yes, he remembered how he meddled now. After all, Dick Grayson had been the Robin who had gone through his time as Robin making a name for himself by not doing a single thing that his father had told him to. With that, he rushed from the edge and began his free fall. Damian watched for a moment, seeing the way he allowed the air to carelessly rush against him as if it was trying to make some kind of futile effort to stop his dangerous descent as the ground grew closer and closer by the second. But just as it seemed to truly become careless with a more negative connotation, his body twisted to catch the edge of one of the smaller buildings, and pulled himself up to jump from roof to roof. 

Damian rolled his eyes, jumping from the roof and drawing his grappling hook to shoot it off and follow after Nightwing.

—————

By the time they had returned to the cave, Dick was already taking off his mask, running a hand through his hair. Damian, himself, said nothing in effort to preserve the silence as he pulled his hood down. He made no move to remove his own mask, but in stead was ready to settle himself in at the computer to write up a report for his father, as would be expected of him. Just as his hand reached out to grab the top of the chair to pull it out for himself, a hand had shot out to grab his wrist. Sharp eyes flashed over to the offender, and they did enough silent questioning without the need to open his mouth, but nonetheless, his voice sounded with biting question.

“Grayson. What do you think you are doing?”

His teeth clenched a bit as he waited, his irritation already at higher levels. It wasn’t just form that one action, no, it had been mounting long before the man had even made his appearance that night. 

“Release me.”

But no move was made to do so. He could easily force a removal himself, but then that would defeat the whole point of the matter and Damian definitely had one. More than just being angry and irritated, there was definitely more of a reason than that..

“Grayson!”

“You didn’t miss me, huh?”

Teeth clenched again as something else between his chest and stomach did. 

“Not at all?”

Eyes narrowed further.

“Not even a little?”

He would do nothing to encourage this ridiculous inquiry. 

“Damian…”

“You left.” An odd sort of sudden surprise surfaced on the boy’s features when he realized that it had been his voice to betray him and speak out. So much for not doing anything to encourage this ridiculous situation that Dick had started. Worse than that, it was continuing and he couldn’t exactly get himself to stop. “You treated me like some insignificant, sniveling child. Claiming that your leave would be for a short time and that you would return. I believe your exact claim was that you would “return before I knew it”?” He could endure any kind of pain and keep fighting, pick any lock, subdue any enemy, but he could not stop his own mouth from speaking? He would have to be sure to add that to a new effort for training. “I do not believe that years properly applies to such a proposed insinuation, Grayson.”

Jerking his wrist from the man’s grasp, he moved to sit down at the computer once more. There was a mixture of surprise, hurt, and guilt that was making its presence known to Dick, and to Damian if he were to look. But he did not, his eyes remained concentrated on the screen, trying to recompose himself, because he felt that there was more which was threatening to compromise him in that moment. More that his mouth wished to betray him and make known. 

“Damian..” He tried again, emotions slipping into his tone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“I do not require apologies nor an explanation. Nor do I desire them.”

“Just listen.”

“You may have removed me from my remaining time for patrol with my Father for the night, but I am still required to supply him with a report of my actions. You of all people should know this. My words are likely wasted.”

Fingers began to type away at the keys, eyes trained upon the screen with no need to pay attention to where his fingers moved. He had every intention of ignoring Dick until he left. He was completely appalled at himself for his display. He had no control over himself like this. How ridiculous. He was trained better than this. The years could not have possibly changed him to be so weak. That was not acceptable, not if he would one day take up his father’s work and title. 

No word was spoken to warn him of the coming actions, and it was training that they had both endured which made the action soundless. Dick’s grasp met the chair as he whirled it around and he stared Damian down once he had him facing his way. Hands went onto either side of the younger man as his hands gripped the armrests. The face that had been full of disheartened feelings only a minute or two before was suddenly determined and unwavering. “I get it, and I deserve it. I didn’t expect anything less than to have you be mad at me. I know you feel like I abandoned you. But I checked in with Bruce every day. You think I didn’t worry about you? But it wasn’t as if I wasn’t leaving you in the most capable hands possible. He’s your father, and I know how much he means to you. I knew you would be okay. It was something that I needed to do. It’s part of what we do. So don’t just.. ignore me now. If you want to say something, then say it.”

“I was a child, Grayson, but not one that was so ignorant where your excuses that you left me with would suffice! It was disgraceful and disgusting, really.” 

The words were met with an even, unchanged expression from how he had started the newest bit of their conversation. 

“But… I did not need you. I do not need you now.” The words caught in his throat as he said them, making them waver in a way that made a small receptor inside his mind panic and berate him. “You left and I made the proper adjustments. Coming back simply disrupts that.”

“If I didn’t listen to Bruce back when he was my mentor, teaching me the ropes as a kid, what makes you think I’m going to listen to the kid I was a mentor to as an adult?”

The smug smirk had returned and it made him huff. Lifting one hand, Dick made a move to remove the mask that Damian still insisted on wearing, taking it off and setting it aside. His smirk turned to a fond smile, despite the indignant way Damian stared at him. “You really grew up. Taller, stronger, lost the baby fat…” He was glad to see how Damian had matured, but some things hadn’t changed at all. That was something he was both glad and grateful for. 

“That is what happens when years pass.”

Despite the way he bit at him with the tone of the remark, Dick just nodded with his soft and admiring expression.

“Years can do many things to a person.”

There was something melancholy about the way he spoke, making Damian look at him a little closer. Giving him his full attention, he could hear the fatigue in his voice. The way it was worn, and it had been there all along, all the while that they had spoken. He’d been aware that Dick had been moving from place to place, hitting any city, any country, for what seemed like no reason. He’d never been able to find a real answer to just what his mission had been. He only knew that he was back now, and he supposed that meant that he had successfully completed it.

Though it was something he heard so clearly with his added attention to the man himself, he was still smiling, and he was still watching him with eyes that were so soft, so endearing, just trying to look into him again. He was trying to read from him just what he wouldn’t say. That was what he always did, but this time he seemed to be trying so hard. This was something that he had dedicated himself to, as if it was his new mission. To find out everything about him that had changed in those years in those few moments. He seemed to be searching for one answer in particular. 

“What are you—”

It was something new and difference to silence him now. Warm lips that pressed to his temple, the cool tip of his nose pressing into the line of his hair until he pulled away, the cool spot dragging down from his hair to where warm lips had been just a moment before. 

“What do you think— Just what was..?!”

Left flustered, his body betrayed him yet again as color rose to lightly tanned cheeks. 

“I thought maybe I could get a “Welcome home” kiss..” Grinning, he seemed to have no shame for his actions. Damian’s face simply grew darker, and he could not keep a strong glare. He was suddenly so unsettled. 

“Grayson…!”

“You missed me.”


End file.
